everything. russia is in anticipation of the annual state of the union address with the president expected to name a set of political reforms in the country. arab league observers are set to arrive in syria as part of a deal and it's tackling bloodshed there while sanctions imposed on damascus by the organization prove inefficient for the people being the ones to feel the pinch. the u.s. allies on the you would get drugs the use of executions and without them they're going to be stopped and lives will be. america's controversial practice of death by lethal injection hits a stumbling block as a drug supply alliance caught by the e.u.

. it's a day on the russian capital watching our team with marina joshua welcome to the program now addressing changes in the country dmitry medvedev is expected to announce a plan to reform russia's political system and his fourth and final state of the union address internal political issues are predictably anticipated to be the main focus of his speech following the post-election developments are going off and joins us live now from central moscow for more on this good morning to you you go or so tell us more about this year's address so what can we expect to hear. good morning and this is going to be the fourth and final state of the union address on the post on the post of the president since we do know that. he's not planning to

compete in the next presidential election which is due to be held just in a few months it is expected that the president is going to name a set of political reforms in russia following the recent parliamentary election on the fourth of december and public discontent over its the results and over the way it was conducted actually just to remind you. did order to investigate all of the accusations of the alleged violations during the election and already over fifty criminal cases have been open and looking into that and. over twenty thousand polling stations the results rather all over twenty polling stations across russia have been canceled nevertheless the election has been officially deemed a success and the new part of the new steel duma started working and this is one of the reasons why is the state of the union address is being held so late in december

because traditionally the president did it in the november and the reasons for that is he didn't want to but he did want to for the new state do want to start working so she could address them sort of since usually the president announces a political program in this case also of the expected set of political reforms as well now it's also important to stress that even though neither move is not planning to stay as russia's president here is planning to become the prime minister if you want to push in windsor the next presidential race so the things that the president is expected to say during the state of the union address are still going to be quite actual since he is still quite in to stay within the authorities of the country all right thanks very much indeed for bringing us this update from central moscow. arab league observers are due to

arrive in syria on thursday as part of a plan to halt violence in the country that's after one of the bloodiest weeks since the beginning of the young rest nine months ago activists say more than two hundred people have been killed in the last few days the u.s. has renewed its call for president to step down warning of new international measures unless it was draws security forces from the street syria is already suffering under an set of sanctions and as artists are first reports it's the ordinary people who are feeling the pain. it's been nearly ten months since syria's uprising began the capital of damascus has remained largely sheltered from the conflict. in the bustling sun so it seems like it's business as usual this one says the winds of change have begun to flow a little stronger the arab league's imposed tough economic sanctions the effects of which have been felt even head in a poor area of damascus and her family struggling to make ends meet

her son here has learning difficulties fava beans for a living but he barely makes one hundred fifty syrian pounds a day three dollars to support him and his wife. and now the fuel for his vending cart has become harder to get hold of with the economic sanctions driving the prices on the beat and there are less products available and the prices are pushed higher there's been fights over again we've been trying to manage by cutting back as much as we can sometimes when we can't afford it which is don't eat. the economic situation in syria was one of the areas president if had been seen to be making some progress be it slowly the for a population that it started seeing the results of economic opportunity al block financial transactions few shortages and power blackouts have become the new. because of the economic sanctions people rushed to stockpile of fuel and gas just

in case people are a little bit afraid of the fact that water or gas might run out and this is why you see these queues this in place by the arab league it is hate the sanctions would fulfill the government's hands when it came to ending the violence in the country because inside syria the name and many feel is every day people who are being punished. they could be even darker financial times ahead share prices in our stock market sicker things to change. down affected by some lows for example of the use of the capital of. banks in syria the increase of interest three of the banks and affected in directly on the decision of the investors and it goes from the arab league will be paving the way for an observer mission to at the end of the month. position they

remain skeptical about whether that too will bring about any real change to these coups up in the west of the conflict areas change can come and they meet tesing some parents of teeth families like finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search. damascus. we are based author and political analyst david on the situation in syria not. as not as clear cut as western media is trying to portray. most of the international media with the exception of a few stations have ignored the fact that the bashar al assad government is fighting armed groups internally and it's country groups that have been armed again by outside forces and they've instead tried to portray it as civilians peaceful civilians protesting for change in their country who are being massacred by the

government this is an incredibly dangerous manipulation of fact that's occurring and and that we've seen in other countries like the case of libya that's been used to justify outside aggression military action and war and and political assassination of a head of state so i think that again this is an attempt to try to garner support from public opinion try to alter the perception of what's taking place in the country and also to get the support from other countries onboard and for those countries and their governments to be out to justify their actions to the people of their nations think that again we have to be very cautious about the information that's coming out of syria about what's going on in that there's no question that they're armed groups that are fighting against the government and that any government in any country in the world has the absolute right to defend itself against armed militia inside its own country we've seen it in the case of the u.s. we've seen it in the case of other countries throughout europe and it's happening

in the case of syria and later this hour here in r.t. we return to the place where the rest of shoot the arab world started as we look back at landmark advance of twenty eleven through the eyes of our correspondents who witnessed and covered them. i was very very flattered and it was moments like that when you realize that the mood in a place like telling a scale from one seeking to another can change dramatically. from the dangers of being a female journalist reporting from the front line to the frustrated hopes of egyptians in a second part of our special series in just a few minutes. this is. just history in the making. testability. ten stories that shaped two thousand and eleven on our t.v. . they are opinions impose tough new restrictions on the sale of drugs used to execute people in the u.s. that of that is likely to worsen an already short supply across the atlantic is

aimed at fighting capital punishment and some of its controversial methods but there are fears that intrepid states may find a way around the controls as artie's ivor bad reports. they've tried hanging electrocution and most recently a drug used to euthanize animals but now american jails will find it much harder to kill prisoners on death row the main supply line for its lethal injections has been cut off after the e.u. slaps new restrictions on drug exports human rights groups say this will make a big difference i really think this will make a difference and we will see the effects of this this control order in the coming months that the u.s. relies on european drugs for use of executions and without them they're going to be stuck and lives will be saved specifically execution drugs are made in the e.u.

but several american states have been importing sedatives instead drugs designed to help being used to hurt. exports of drugs like sodium thiopental will now be controlled to stop the use in a three part lethal cocktail the n.-s. that it was being used to put the condemned inmate to sleep as another drug paralyzed before the final heart stopper was administered without baton initial numbing stage lethal injections are unconstitutional under u.s. law the usual supply for these drugs has been dwindling since the only u.s. manufacturers ceased production last year american prisons though found an alternative source right here in west london at this fairly unassuming driving school buildings also shared by dream farmer a british firm exporting british drugs the us prisons to kill people the u.k. government soon found out and banned its use so american prisons searched elsewhere r.t. reported in may how some states have begun using pen to bottle

a drug normally used to put pets to sleep that's never been tested for human executions its primary use for humans is to treat epilepsy but it has no pain killing properties many feel its use on death throes tantamount to torture this can cause excruciating pain if something goes wrong and because we have no test we cannot guarantee that nothing will get around to people at risk of not just being killed being tortured to death following our report danish manufacturer imposed their own restrictions to prevent printer barber tools misuse the new e.u. embargo covers eight barbiturates in total including painted barber told us stockpiles will eventually run dry but many fear it's only a matter of time before prisons try again with something else unfortunately the death merchants in the us can sometimes be creative in terms of what they put to use in order to put people to death and so i think what we need is

a clause which said if other drugs should appear on the market and we discover the u.s. is misuse. those we can quickly have a quick procedure to those to the list without you know waiting of the year aside from lethal injection other methods like hanging in farming scored a still sanctioned in the u.s. but in now really used these new restrictions may not choke off the drug supply completely but it will certainly talk in the noose on america's controversial death penalty. by the bennetts. well despite going gently with american prisoners britain is pulling no punches was violence at home a real bullet instead of a rubber one every ford says u.k. police could have used live ammunition against arsonists during the riots in the summer. and also soaring into space a russian soyuz rocket has been successfully launched from the baikonur cosmodrome with an international crew of three on board to find out what they'll be doing on

the final frontier at r.t. dot com. spain is facing a stereo of more than sixteen billion euros announced by the new prime minister it's hoped the measure will prevent madrid from following in the footsteps of fellow eurozone nations like greece and italy that are teetering on the brink of financial disaster because of their debts and about fifteen minutes we hear from a member of the european parliament who thinks measures taken by governments and those countries have come at a cost to democracy. last month we saw crews in two e.u. member states initially as in greece elected prime ministers were toppled in favor

of your across respectively a former european commissioner and a former vice president of the european central bank they head what are called national governments but the governments have been put together for the sole purpose of pushing through an agenda that would be rejected at a general election so that we see the if you like the anti democratic tendencies that were always there implicitly in the eurozone we now see them explicitly apparatchiks in brussels deal directly with apparatchiks in athens and in rome the people and their representatives have been cut off altogether. now it's time for our special series of first hand reports on events that mark twenty one haven't they gyptian revolution did not just change the course of the country's history but spearheaded the arab spring the wave of protests that swept across the middle east policy your was reporting from there and shares what never made it into her live news reports.

i think my biggest impression from covering the egyptian story this is the status of betrayal and anger that people in egypt still have when i was there back in january when the revolution started talking to protest as they the general consensus in radius is what people were saying to me was that they felt that they were part of history they were creating a new time soon and a new future for egypt. going back to the game in november when the second resolution happened all the second part of the first revolution depending on you talk to those same potest as told me that they felt that the trust that they had placed in the army had been misplaced there are hundreds of thousands of people who lost on arriving in times square as you can see many of them feeding. me and

occupation it was dangerous covering the egypt stories of journalists and i think it was even more dangerous because when that as a foreign journalist i remember when we go back and see if you read we kept a very low profile we tried not to go too much into the crowd in tough to square we took all kinds of signage that we had on us that said we were journalists i mean of course a con tied to temora the by and large you don't want to do more attention to me than is necessary the offices from which we were for cost and we took the signs that say that we were media because this was also was inside some anger and frustration among the people. people often ask me if being a woman is an advantage or disadvantage to going to dangerous areas as a journalist most of the time that is an advantage because we find that people help shape things move with you and i'm talking to men and women because you're a woman and you laced with me perhaps in a male colleague but i do feel frightened being

a woman in tough experience that people. they may even be replaced with one i think trying to punch me might break one of them and i can tell me that any extra tough to square a walkthrough female colleague whether it was an egyptian camera man away russian cameramen and i always felt much safer putting my arm through his but people would still want possibly brush up squeeze a part of my body and look at me with this kind of knowing that leaves you feel safe and i'm very vulnerable as a woman. that in february when the police were taken off the streets there was a real sense of complete the want to snows in cairo and i remember doing a lot of reports of my talks. and i'm not a. guess and certainly at night i had to move back to the hotel because there was a curfew and there were no cars on the street and it was almost sunil walking past apartment buildings and soon people coming in front of the apartment buildings that had formed a kind of nightwatch group and you had people in their eighty's and their ninety's

standing there with literally a kitchen knife or a kitchen broom and with that they were going to protect their apartments these gangs that were patrolling the streets of cairo they were trying to steal what they could because as i say there were no police around this is your friend as if. there is one to go to particularly i was very frightened we were standing on the outskirts of tusker square i was talking to a group called people and as always had to just speak to one person and then everybody comes to see what's happening and and people go. through so it's not that they are listening to what's being said often they just want to get a voice is expressed on the camera and in the moment and that's and that's the scary part is that these things happen in a moment in a moment in time change when people started yelling and shouting not that they just wanted their voices to be heard but that they actually wanted to protest as journalists and the cameramen that i was working with understood it needed. what

was happening he started screaming for me to get into the car i remember the driver because we had a driver that had been allocated to us came screeching down the road i mean looking pushed by the crowd and the journalist who did the come in and was pushing me into the comedy getting into the car he kind of throwing himself in off to me in the car was banging on the car as we sped away i was very very frightened and it was moments like that when you realize that the mood in a place like toughness square from one sixteen to another can change dramatically. and i don't even know if he would revolution is the one i would but i don't think the revolution in egypt is over we've witnessed to save themselves perhaps the same revolution or two revolutions but again the anger the frustration the disappointment the scenes of hopes of not being realized is hope people on the streets of cairo if you will when there is a sense that this country is nowhere near where people had hoped and dreamed it

would be back in february and i think this is the general uncertainty that is sweeping the middle east there is a sense that things are changing but another sense of no one not knowing exactly where and how and what ultimately these changes will bring. as we look at other news from around the world the fear paula and many women feel on the streets of cairo has come into focus ten thousand marched in square as they continue to show their outrage over the treatment of female protesters several women have been physically assaulted by soldiers during the recent government crackdown on activists the brutality included being pulled by the hair beaten and stomped on while they lay on the ground the military council issued a statement of regret for water called violations against women and promised to punish those responsible protests began last week when troops cracked down on a sit in to demand egypt's military world to hand power to

a civilian authority. finnish authorities have impounded a china bound ship after uncovering dozens of patriot missiles and over a hundred tons of explosives on board dock workers found the missiles in containers marked fireworks the weapons lacked the proper transit permits and have been handed over to the finnish military police did not confirm reports the ship was also scheduled to stop in south korea patriots are surface to air interceptor missiles supplied to the us and allied forces. parts of colombia are still underwater after unusually having rains battered the region flooding and mudslides have killed nearly two hundred people since rains began in early september government officials have released more than five hundred million dollars to help those affected forty said it's the worst for a long season in decades and is expected to continue through january.

brings us up to date here in r.t. as he was happening in business with kareena. it's twenty three past eight am here in moscow hello welcome to business here in r.t.e. the russian government is ready to help national companies grow and extend the broad what it needs in return is loyalty according to local reports and who has been meeting russia's business elite on wednesday the prime minister says firms shouldn't go off shore and pay tax at home. business bullshit but you we will do all we can so that you can develop your enterprises and come to new markets but businesses should also understand their responsibility to the country don't hide money and assets in. it is unacceptable in every way be it legal or semi legal to evade taxes there should be censorship and pretty much the money of the prime

minister is talking about include seventy four billion dollars that have already left russia this year their capital outflow from the country is equivalent to over five percent of what the economy produces some businessmen have agreed to sail back from offshore or require an atlas to return. to the euro and for business for anybody who wants to. be in iraq the money will be around the russian this is most important. the same things. you know strengthening the situation in the business is running the way. you keep those around you get weak in the bureaucrats the. market watchers believe the global oil market is deeply confused middle east tensions and eurozone recession are casting a cloud over the world economy investment bank and call from what i'll see you

explain what investors are up to and how this will affect russia. you know what we are seeing. the market is very confused regarding the future of the wall. of people . both of them on your options in. the mood to couldn't produce will produce substantially. the boeing. so nobody. in the position to give us would lead us. to. start to come move on to the pressure of recession or expectation could be very. let's have a look at the markets now oil prices are heading off as a sharp drop in u.s. crude stocks overshadowed persistent worries that fuel prices would car curtail global oil demand light sweet is trading at just below ninety nine dollars a barrel on brant. nearly one hundred eight dollars per barrel asian markets are in

the red with massive central bank lending in europe patting investors cautioning every years that european concerns hit some financial stocks across the region tokyo lister's miserable group and one percent down while bank complications is losing half a percent and. now less than two hours ahead of the opening bell in moscow the russian markets ended wednesday on a negative note the r.t. has dropped almost one percent while the mines explanation on seventy percent of the credit. most financial news coming out of europe these days tends to drive markets down but analysts say the latest move to strengthen banking sector will boost investor confidence. providing almost i think a billion euros of debt over the next three years to the banks so i think this news should be reported to the market. the russians still think very much oversold i

mean the russian market is very much oversold it's very attractive valuations at this point however if you look the still the best in the gold plays in a limited. we think it's a very good company that said the movement in the price will be under pressure from what orders and with. their margins will shrink from the outstanding twenty three twenty four percent the records the two thousand and eleven. italian carmaker fiat has decided to build its own. deal expected to be signed in the country. next year say its initial production capacity will be around one hundred thousand cars a year earlier he had planned to create a joint venture with a local car. that's the business. war.

with a few. years which is on. technology updates next generation playthings made from super strong ultra light weight building materials good health with a host of nuclear isotopes a cleaner planet seems to be a revolutionary way to get rid of our growing landfills and

a long list of known russian invaders. leave the country. in two thousand and ten especially economic zone for industrial production was established in russia somalia region with a total area of six hundred sixty ekta as. its investors are granted exclusive tax and customs benefits which includes a five exemption from property land and transport taxes as well as an income tax reduction to fifteen point five percent. the special economic zone operates as a fleet customs own which enables manufacturers to market their products in russia free of employ to tease the some our region as he said is currently witnessing a sewage.